On Thursday December 10, brother of Canadian citizen Sarah Attia, Ahmad Attia, Senator Mobina Jaffer and family friend Dr. Nadia Abu-Zahra stood together in the Charles Lynch Room in Parliament Center Block to raise attention to a Canadian family forcibly held in Egypt. The press conference coincided with International Human Rights Day.

Senator Mubina Jaffer, a long-time supporter of the #KQFamily, explained that she has spoken directly to the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office about the unfortunate circumstance facing the family.

“The clock is ticking. The clock is ticking,” emphasized Senator Jaffer. She highlighted Khaled’s deteriorating health condition stemming from his arbitrary imprisonment under solitary confinement, the deteriorating political situation in Egypt, and the fact that Sarah and Khaled’s four children are out of Canadian school.

“These are Canadian children, and this is a Canadian family. We have kept quiet and we have not raised this issue publicly earlier because we were very respectful of the Prime Minister having many issues to deal with. But now we believe, before Christmas, this family deserves to come home,” explained Senator Jaffer.

Ahmad and Senator Mobina joined CBC Power and Politics yesterday as well. Ahmad concluded with a clear but respectful request to the Rt. Hon Prime Minister to “call the Egyptian Government and ask of them to investigate where this bureaucratic problem is taking place, to resolve it and to allow this Canadian family to come home quickly and safely before Christmas… the Ambassador has exhausted his options.”

CBC Radio Canada

Brother of Canadian woman stuck in Egypt pleads for Trudeau’s intervention

On July 3, 2013, the Egyptian military forcibly and illegally detained Khaled Al-Qazzaz, a Canadian-educated mechanical engineer, human rights activist and former school principal. His Toronto-born wife, Sarah Attia, has been raising awareness about his situation with the hopes of bringing him back home to her and their four children.